Major wireless carriers said in letters to the FCC they plan to offer subscribers alerts via cellphone and other wireless devices starting in December 2010, when the Commercial Mobile Alert System launches. But carriers may not be able to guarantee service to all customers in all markets by that date, they warned. Sprint Nextel noted a problem alerting millions using its unique iDEN network. Many smaller carriers have advised the FCC they don’t plan to provide alerts (CD Sept 3 p5). Letters declaring whether carriers will participate in the alert system were due at the FCC Monday.
The Public Safety Spectrum Trust plans to ask the FCC not to cap at $5 million what businesses would pay public safety yearly for use of its block of 700 MHz spectrum, trust Chairman Harlin McEwen said Monday. That amount is one-tenth of earlier estimates of a lease payment for the spectrum. McEwen met with FCC officials Monday to discuss the revised 700 MHz D-block proposal that Chairman Kevin Martin discussed Friday during a call with reporters (CD Sept 8 p1).
The 700 MHz public safety D-block’s future remains in question entering what are likely the last five months of Kevin Martin’s chairmanship. Among the main problems facing advocates of a public-private partnership is seeming reluctance by some of the nation’s largest systems to take part, as seen at an FCC en banc hearing on the D-block (CD July 31 p1). Public safety sources say many first responders still don’t understand the benefits offered by a broadband wireless network, and may not until the network is built.
Aloha Partners, the largest holder of 700 MHz licenses in the U.S. until it sold AT&T its spectrum for $2.5 billion, is back. This time it’s pursuing white spaces spectrum that could be used to offer mobile TV. Aloha President Charles Townsend, who met in August with FCC Chairman Kevin Martin, is trying to defeat any move to open the spectrum for unlicensed use, as advocated by Microsoft, Intel and Google and other high-tech heavyweights.
Some small carriers are notifying the FCC they will sit out a new program for sending emergency alerts to cellphones and other wireless devices. Participation in the program, whose existence is mandated by the WARN Act, is voluntary, but carriers must give customers “clear and conspicuous notice” if they elect not to take part. Filings are due Sept. 8, with many more carriers likely to opt out of the alerts, industry sources said Tuesday.
Leading public safety groups last week urged the FCC to wrap up a decision on a deadline by which Sprint Nextel must clear so-called 800 MHz interleaved channels. That’s a key unresolved issue in the 800 MHz rebanding aimed at separating commercial and public safety operations in that band. APCO, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the International Association of Fire Chiefs signed the letter, which one official said shows that the groups continue to work together on many issues such as 800 MHz rebanding.
Rep. Shelley Berkley, D-Nev., asked the FCC to field test beacons before it mandates their use to protect wireless microphones from interference by devices surfing the Internet using TV white spaces. Motorola has submitted a beacon device to the FCC, but the agency has not committed to field or lab tests of the technology. “My most fundamental concern about beacons is that, to my knowledge, no one has ever seen one --not in the laboratory, not at the Commission, and certainly not on the Las Vegas Strip,” wrote Berkley, who represents Las Vegas. “How a ‘coming attraction’ device can be considered an interference protection solution without any laboratory or field testing requires a leap of faith I am unable to take … Any such device must be thoroughly tested to determine if the beacon can accomplish what sensing technology failed to do in terms of protecting broadcast and professional wireless microphone operation.” Beacon tests are possible, an FCC spokesman said Friday. “We received beacons from Motorola and Adaptrum only recently,” he said. “We are studying the proposed characteristics, and are considering what tests, if any, may be useful to further inform the record.”
The FCC should keep the de minimis rule as part of broader hearing-aid compatibility rules, said TIA, Motorola and CTIA. But advocates for the hearing-impaired are expected to ask the FCC to end the exception. Under the rule, a handset maker need not offer a hearing aid-compatible unit if it offers fewer than two models per air interface. That allowed Apple to debut its first handset, the iPhone, without offering a hearing-aid compatible version. The FCC asked interested parties to file comments.
Leap Wireless accused Verizon Wireless and Alltel of refusing to answer the many questions Leap has raised about Verizon’s buy of the smaller carrier. The Rural Telecommunications Group called Verizon’s commitment to rural America “disingenuous.” Other small carriers and groups that represent them similarly slammed the $28.1 billion deal now before the FCC, in reply comments filed at the commission.
CTIA is hitting significant local government resistance as it petitions the FCC to clarify federal authority over cell towers and wireless facility siting. The National Association of Telecommunications Officers and Advisors, the National Association of Counties, the National League of Cities and the U.S. Conference of Mayors are among those asking the FCC to extend by 60 days a Sept. 15 deadline set by the Wireless Bureau for comments on the petition. This week CTIA asked the FCC to stick with the bureau’s deadlines of Sept. 15 for comments, Sept. 30 for replies.